Tarun Tejpal

(India, 1963) in 2009 was elected by Business Week one of the fifty most influential men of India. He owes that to his pioneering work as an investigative journalist. In 2000 Tejpal started the webzine Tehelka which became the watchdog of Indian media. in 2001 Tehelka's inquiries led to the resignation of the Minister of Defence. Meanwhile Tehelka ('sensation' in Hindi) has developed into a leading weekly magazine-cum-news site with a staff of more than 100. In his spare time Tejpal found time to write two novels: The Alchemy of Desire (2005), and The Story of my Assassins (2009). Both novels portray the complexities of Indian society, but in his debut passion and a longing for love play a central role. V.S. Naipaul called Tejpal's debut ‘brilliant’.